THE KINGFISHER. 
169 
to move with swiftness and with safety, either on 
the water, or under its surface. 
There is not much difference in appearance be- 
twixt the adult male and female kingfisher ; and 
their young have the fine azure feathers on the back 
before they leave the nest. This early metallic 
brilliancy of plumage seems only to be found in 
birds of the pie tribe. It obtains in the magpie, the 
jay, and, most probably, in all the rollers. Where- 
ever it is observed in the young birds, we may be 
certain that the adult male and female will be nearly 
alike in colour. We are in great ignorance, and I 
fear we shall long remain so, concerning colour in 
the plumage of birds. The adult male and female 
kingfisher have a very splendid display of fine tints ; 
so have the adult male and female starling ; but, 
though the young of the kingfisher have their bright 
colours in the first plumage, we find the first plu- 
mage of the young starlings pale and dull. I have 
had an eye to this circumstance for above thirty 
years, and still I am sorely in want of the school- 
master. 
The old story, that the kingfisher hovers over the 
water, in order to attract the fish by the brightness 
of its plumage, is an idle surmise. In the first 
place, fishes cannot see an object directly above 
them ; and, secondly, if they could see it, there 
would be nothing brilliant for them to look at in the 
kingfisher, as all the splendid feathers are upon its 
upper parts. 
A brook runs through this park, and alongside of 
it grows a small oak, part of the roots of which are 
